[skalie]

Is there any reason why I should buy an Airport station when I could buy a wireless router/switch for a third of the price? (Airport, not Airport extreme)

(For an iBook 600mhz, OSX 10.1, might upgrade to Panther at some stage as well)

[John Strung]

The short answer is no.

The ABS has a built-in modem which you might need if you are sharing a dial up connection, and it supports AppleTalk one the wireless side which most third party wireless routers don't do. Unless you are planning on file sharing using systems older than OS 9.0, or need AppleTalk for printer sharing, the lack of AppleTalk support should not be a problem.

There are some third party routers which do support AppleTalk as discussed HERE

[skalie]

Cable modems all round, so it looks like I'll be going for the third party option.

Thanks for the quick reply.

[selowitch]

Originally posted by John Strung:
Unless you are planning on file sharing using systems older than OS 9.0, or need AppleTalk for printer sharing, the lack of AppleTalk support should not be a problem.

I'm currently using IP Printing under Jaguar to access my DirectJet printer server attached to a LaserJet 6MP printer. Do I need to worry about a new router having AppleTalk support?

[ghporter]

If you're using IP printing, you're probably not using "AppleTalk over IP," so I wouldn't worry about AT. Plain IP printing is simpler for most people, anyway, so AT is kind of obsolete anymore.

[selowitch]

Originally posted by GHPorter:
If you're using IP printing, you're probably not using "AppleTalk over IP," so I wouldn't worry about AT. Plain IP printing is simpler for most people, anyway, so AT is kind of obsolete anymore.

That was my suspicion.

I absolutely love sharing that printer vip IP printing with my wife's accursed PC. What a convenience!